It's a sad, sad day my friends. I have just returned from surveying the damage to my bike. I am somewhat shocked that I am still here. My trusty stead, The Beast, Rosinante, has gone to God.
The front end is a mess - the headlight, and upper faring - missing. The front wheel rim was _dented_. The forks slightly bent, but both of the fork seals blown. There was an ugly stain of fluids on the ground under the bike. The frame itself was twisted, which you could see with the naked eye. scary.
I guess all this damage is what saved me, and I should consider myself lucky, but there's a lot of milestones and memories in/with that 'bike:
The morning my daughter was born, and I went to the hospital. Even though I had promised myself to never speed, I vividly recall looking at the speedo and thinking, "250 (Kms/hr) !! Wow.. that's a quarter the speed of sound!"
The laps around Philip Island where I almost got under a 2 minute lap.
The jaunts through the hills with friends. Blasting around on hot summer days, free as birds, and not having to be home till the street lights came on.
The daily commute to and from work, and a variety of jobs (not to mention girlfriends), that came and went whilst the one steady thing in life was knowing my bike would be there in the morning.
The time I was so broke and I couldn't afford a new battery and I had to push start it up and down the road, in the middle of winter...
Ahhhhhhhh it brings a tear to my eye right now.
/me misses my ZX-6R, The Beast, Rosinante... now the question is what so I replace it with??? ;)